Harness the power of the

Information “Overload” Age to improve employee productivity and well-being

By introducing new technology capable of making the average employee perform more efficiently and productively, today’s “Information Age” has had a profound impact on our economy.   The 21st century’s sustained economic growth has been record breaking.  Additionally, the strong rebound following both the Internet bubble burst and 9/11 attacks is a firm testament to the resiliency of this new economy.

In a speech delivered on September 6, 2007, Steve Forbes put this recent U.S. economic growth into perspective: “Just the amount of U.S. economic growth alone over recent years is in fact equivalent to four entire Chinese economies.”   This is a truly remarkable accomplishment; but what is the price for this economic miracle?

The impact of growth on our employees

Not without negative consequences, this recent expansion is taking its toll on the well-being of the employee by way of increased stress related diseases.  The asset that is the foundation of the information economy is under attack by the very same economy.  What is the culprit?  Information overload.

 

From a corporate perspective, information overload is an absolute threat to earnings.  In transitioning from the Industrial Age to the Information Age, the economic value of the organization has shifted from a highly controlled, centralized production of goods to a highly decentralized dependency on the simultaneous actions and thoughts of thousands of employees.   It is in the brains of millions of workers that our economic value is being created.

 

Unfortunately, unlike that of a production line worker, the nature of Information Age labor has made the ability to measure the financial impact of any one individual’s contribution quite difficult.  Yet the very essence of earnings is found in the production of each individual worker.

 

In a 1999 study of the information overload phenomenon, British psychologist Dr. David Lewis coined the term “Information Fatigue Syndrome”, believing that medical professionals would soon recognize this as a physical, medical condition.1

 

Furthermore, in 2004, Dr. Edward M. Hallowell, MD and psychiatrist, publish ed “Overloaded Circuits: Why Smart People Underperform” in Harvard Business Review, 2  more thoroughly following the work in 2006 by publishing an entire book critically examining information overload. 3

 

Dr. Hallowell, an expert in Attention Deficit Disorder, noticed a sharp spike in self referral patients in 1999 and 2000.  The patients, convinced they had ADD, sought out Dr. Hallowell for treatment.  Fascinatingly, the doctor discovered that over 80% of his patients did not in fact have clinical ADD. 

 

Indeed, while the self referral patients were showing typical ADD symptoms, Dr. Hallowell concluded that he was actually observing the natural response of the human brain to its immediate environment.  In other words, the information age was actually becoming the “information overload age” and our adaptive biological tendencies were taking over to cope with the situation.  He titled the condition Attention Deficit Trait, ADT.

 

The symptoms of ADT are all too common in the workplace: 

 

•  Irritability
•  Inability to focus
•  Careless errors
•  Lost creativity
•  Missed deadlines
•  Failed projects
•  Depression
•  Poor communication

 

These are all examples of personal characteristics which, if apparent in a potential employee, immediately cause an employer to pass on offering the individual a position.  Yet companies are actually cultivating these characteristics each day in their workforce.

Overload and the cost to the company

A recent study published in Harvard Business Review4 found that the average worker today spends 40% of the work day merely processing information (see graph).  This translates into only 60% of the average work day being spent on true value creation activities.  40% of the payroll costs are spent handling information overload—a tremendously large expense.

 

Ten years ago, Reuters conducted a study of 1,300 managers in the UK, USA, Hong Kong and Singapore in order to better understand “the politics of information”. 5   One of the key findings was that 2 out of 3 respondents cited the overload of information as a leading source of both stress and lack of satisfaction in their work.  They cited conditions of ill health, the canceling of social activities, and essentially feeling too tired to participate in pursuits outside of work.  The remarkable fact is that these symptoms were being felt before the Internet, email, BlackBerry and cell phones were in such wide distribution.  The situation has worsened considerably since 1996.

 

My work in this area has found that in any given group of  employees, and across many industries, non-profit organizations, and government agencies, 75% of the population is currently experiencing burnout and overload.  A sobering statistic from the 2006 HBR article, “Extreme Jobs”, reveals that 36% of workers aged 25-34 say they will likely leave their jobs within a year, and 30% of workers aged 35-44 say the same thing.  A 30% turnover rate for a company has a potentially devastating financial impact.

Identifying Information Overload

Diagnosing a company as to whether or not it is experiencing this phenomenon is really not a difficult task.  The symptoms are incredibly apparent and readily available for observation.  The following symptoms or conditions are indicators of overload:

 

Financial & Operational

•  Missed financial forecasts
•  Missed deadlines
•  Constant lack of digital storage space
•  High levels of unproductive email traffic
•  Unproductive meetings – generally perceived as a waste of time
•  Careless mistakes – high error rates in work products
•  Operation at a frantic pace in which every request is an emergency

 

People

•  High levels of turnover
•  High levels of tension and stress in meetings
•  Broken relationships – high rates of divorce among employees
•  High absenteeism
•  Low employee job satisfaction
•  Wide spread ADT symptoms in the workplace
•  Lack of relevance between annual goals and actual daily performance

 

The fact is that most people have not been trained in appropriate work habits, skills, or use of the appropriate technology to combat these issues.  We are presently at the point in this era analogous to when the automobile industry found itself just prior to Henry Ford developing the production line.  Up until that transformative moment in time, each car was hand crafted.

 

Today, the average worker operates with such autonomy that they are left to define their own tasks, often build their own tools, and then left to figure out how their production fits into the overall organizational work-stream.  Often a quarter into a task, demands change and the worker is left to figure out how to adjust, or even forced to scrap his or her work to manage the new input.  The pace of inflow has increased dramatically.  The forty-hour work week is a fond memory and, for some, would be a welcome retreat and equivalent of a “part-time” job.

The corporate band-aid

In response to the devastatin g effects of information overload, companies often take a number of short term and immediate actions designed to address some of the symptoms.  For example, a company will focus primarily on reducing turnover, perhaps instituting projects to “connect” with employees.  Yet after the statistics begin to move in the correct direction, management moves onto the next task.  However, to make the improvements sustainable, methods and systems must be put in place that will lead to high performing employees without destroying the employee in the process.

 

Similarly, it is no coincidence that the organizing industry (planners, closet organizers, gadgets, and services) is a multi-billion dollar business in the U.S.  People who feel out of control are reaching out for a panacea to “organize” their lives.

 

Unfortunately, one short-term burst to “get organized” does not produce lasting performance.  The old school management technique of working longer hours is taking its toll on the employee and driving down actual performance.  It is time to change how we work in this new economy.

Training the organization to work in an era of overload

Recognizing that most companies currently face this challenge, I have developed a program aimed at installing permanent and lasting performance improvement.  I call it Speed with Purpose.  It is a method that trains employees to work more productively.  In training, it provides the organization with common principles for operation.  When implemented, it transforms the organization’s approach to work, leading to better quality work products and highly satisfied employees.

 

The method is founded on the core principle that every action taken at the individual level ties back to the core values of the organization.  If the actions do not make this connection, then the organization is operating in a state of incongruity.  Thus operating in a less than optimal performance, the result is lowered earnings.

 

Corporate alignment with the individual’s values, roles, goals, projects, and tasks is vitally important to ensure that what is intended to occur actually occurs at the task level and results in the desired earnings.

 

We operate on all of these various levels, from our overarching values to our specific tasks, every moment of every day.  The degree to which we are aware of the various levels and are proactive in determining the tasks we focus on   at any given point in time is what distinguishes a high performing individual from an underperforming individual. 

 

A tremendous amount of time is spent each year on performance measurement and goal setting.  The reason these systems often do not reflect the reality of the work environment is owing to the inability of individuals to manage these concepts on a daily basis.  

 

Executives shy away from this topic because it seems too soft.  The fact of the matter is that most executives do not  know how to harden this concept into a critically interwoven aspect of operations for the organization.  Programs exist, but the actual execution is flawed.  Lacking are specific and actionable systems and workflows to make sure the alignment is made and stays connected.  Speed with Purpose attacks this issue head on.

First, achieve alignment around the day to day activities

Today’s corporate performance is an amalgam of thousands of independent employee actions.  Unfortunately, most employees are left to:

 

•  Determine what they should work on
•  Decide when they should work on it
•  Define how their works fits into the overall system
•  Invent their own tools and processes as they go

 

Most of this work is being done at such a pace that it does not fit well into others’ work streams.  Without a common method, this misalignment causes large amounts of re-work, resulting in higher costs, missed deadlines, and lost market opportunities.  Thus today’s workers need guidance on how to work with each other and how to align what they value both with the company’s values and their coworkers’ efforts.  Speed with Purpose provides the training to make this alignment a reality on a daily basis.

Alignment is only half of the battle

But alignment alone is not enough. The worker must also have specific direction regarding with whom to work, how to handle the volume of information, and how to connect their work to others.  It is vitally important that the corporation establish operating principles and procedures that are repeatable by each employee across all of their tasks such that the thousands of individual actions tie together as intended.

 

I have defined a workflow process that fits any information age worker and any job – from the CEO to an administrative assistant. It optimizes time spent to produce better outcomes and reduce the amount of time spent on processing.  The flow is simple and actionable.  It is easy to follow and understand.  It requires no special software.  It does require the employee to think about each and every action he or she takes.  This clear thinking is what ultimately creates the increased value.

 

The approach of tying the values, roles, goals, projects, and tasks using the workflow results in higher performing employees, sustainable performance, and a true method to fight information overload.  It is flexible enough to be incorporated to individual work preferences, yet structured enough to provide a common approach that everyone can fol low.

 

Once deployed, the method has the ability to permeate all aspects of the business from meetings, to email management, to delegation, to basic thinking.  Employees who adopt this method find that they produce better quality work, completed in less time.  Additionally, they experience a better overall sense of well-being.  This method enables the worker to stay focused and relaxed while bringing about the desired outcomes.

 

Speed with Purpose essentially trains employees how to work well in the information age.  It strives to reduce errors and stress, freeing the employee to engage their mind and produce better quality work.

 

•  Better way to work
•  Higher quality output
•  Tighter connection to the mission
•  Clearer mind that produces higher quality thinking
•  Tools to fight information overload

 

Similar to any activity that requires change in actions and thinking, the process requires a commitment by the individual and the organization to operate by this method.  But upon commitment, the benefits far outweigh the effort required to implement the system. 

 

Having a method to combat information overload provides sustainable performance and increased earnings over time.  Simply put, companies can ask employees to do more work with fewer resources, knowing that they have the tools and skills to accomplish the task. 

 

In our current age of information overload, it is vital for us to begin to respect the value of the knowledge worker, recognize overload as a threat to productivity and earnings, and make investments in human capital to equip employees to handle the data and use it to their advantage, rather than become overwhelmed and burned out.